Bob Gilbert, a gifted Quarter Horse trainer and a true gentleman of the racing industry, passed away earlier this week.

© Los Alamitos

By Orlando Gutierrez

CYPRESS, CA–MARCH 22, 2026– Bob Gilbert, a gifted Quarter Horse trainer and a true gentleman of the racing industry, passed away earlier this week, according to several sources. He was 81.

Gilbert was forced into premature retirement in 2001 after being seriously injured in an assault and robbery. Prior to that tragic incident, he was among the most respected trainers in the sport, conditioning 356 Quarter Horse winners from 2,525 starters for nearly $5 million in career earnings.

Gilbert arrived at Los Alamitos in 1980 from his family’s 135-acre ranch in Nocona, Texas. He brought just four horses—three of them claimers—but through dedication and hard work, he eventually lifted his stable to the highest levels of the sport. His most prolific seasons included the 1991 campaign, where he won 60 races and earned $600,000 with a 20% win rate. In 1996, he maintained a 21% win percentage, securing 40 victories from just 189 starters.

Throughout his career, Gilbert saddled the winners of 29 graded stakes. He captured Grade 1 victories for prominent owners, including Spencer Childers’ Uncas, Luva Secret, and Bono Jazz, as well as Ed Allred’s Flare For Toby and the Allred/R.D. Hubbard collaboration Western Heart. Notably, Uncas won the Grade 1 Ed Burke Memorial in 1996 and the Grade 1 Los Alamitos Derby in 1997.

Gilbert also campaigned Grade 1 winners for Bob Moore (Awesome Blossom) and Zory Kuzyk (Check Her Twice). Other top-level winners included Ronald Cook’s Isaws Sugar Bear and Quarter Circle M Ranch’s Teller Queen. For Vessels Stallion Farm, he won graded stakes with Meter Me Gone, and in 1992, he captured the Grade 1 Anne Burnett (the precursor to the Mildred Vessels Memorial Handicap) with Junos Request at Hollywood Park.

Following the 2001 attack, Gilbert remained on life support at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center for an extended period of time. After his release from the hospital, he returned to his family’s ranch in Nocona. One of his final training wins occurred while he was still hospitalized; the Bob Moore Farms LLC-owned Golden Form won a 350-yard sprint at Los Alamitos.

In retirement, Gilbert remained close to the sport, visiting Lone Star Park and frequently welcoming racetrack friends—including former Los Alamitos General Manager Brad McKinzie—to his Texas ranch. He will be remembered as an excellent horseman, a gentle cowboy, and a total class act.

Memorial services for Bob Gilbert will be held at Jerry Woods Funeral Home in Nocona, Texas, on Saturday, March 28. The service coincides with the running of the Los Alamitos Oaks, a race Gilbert won twice: first with Quarter Circle M Ranch’s Teller Queen (1989) and again with Vessels Stallion Farms’ Better Bet On Me (1996).

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